Commentary: Alan Hudson, Executive Director of Global Integrity in a blog post writes: “Open governance matters, not because it is a good thing in itself, or because it leads directly to better development outcomes (it rarely does). Instead, open governance matters because it enhances the ability of communities, to try, learn and adapt their way towards better development outcomes.”
Publication: Freedom of Information and the Commonwealth, a special issue of The Round Table: the Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs (only the introduction appears to be online to non subscribers). Edited by Mandy Banton and Susan Williams (senior research fellows at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies) and Elizabeth Shepherd (professor of archives and records management at University College London), this volume builds upon and develops themes relating to the introduction of Freedom of Information legislation throughout the Commonwealth. “Articles include an overview of the current state of such legislation, focusing on human rights implications and discussing the roles of civil society and the press; a case study of the UK Freedom of Information Act 2000; an examination of records as the essential basis for accountability and transparency and thus the foundation for effective FOI in Commonwealth Africa; a discussion of the importance of adopting a pluralist approach to developing Freedom of Information schemes within specific states in the South Pacific, rather than adopting a ‘one size fits all’ model; and case studies from the Commonwealth Caribbean, and from Bermuda.”
Japan: The Japan Times comments on the work of a panel of experts looking at document management. Among other things, the editorial says, “The panel should push the government to make it clear in the law that the people have the right to access official documents and that administrative organizations have a duty to respect and uphold this right.”
Georgia: A detailed study is prepared by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information about access to open data in Georgia. “The study includes the analysis about the Open Data availability in Georgian government sector as well as recommendations about how to develop it. The study gives the detailed study of the government open data web site www.data.gov.ge which was created in the framework of the OGP Action Plan (2014-2015) commitments of the Government of Georgia 2014-2015. “ IDFI also created web-applications as examples how to use open data: https://idfi.ge/en/idfi-web-applications-open-data
Australia: Blogger Peter Timmins writes, “Contrary to the Attorney General’s view, who ministers meet and why should be no state secret.”
Mexico: The civil organization Transparency Node criticizes the government of Rafael Moreno Valle for breaking promises on transparency.
India: The Karnataka State Information Commission has directed the departments to upload their basic information on the internet, reports The Hindu.
Canada: “Canada’s government will “work closely” with Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault on an upcoming review of the Access to Information Act, the office of Treasury Board President Scott Brison has confirmed,” according to Embassy News.
United States: National Security Archive Unredacted blogger Lauren Harper reviews the House FOI legislation. The Electronic Frontier Foundation gives the Senate advice on changing gthe bill.
United States: “Fee Survey Results Are In! Conclusion? Fee System Not Working, but no Consensus on Best Fix,” according to Unredacted.
United States: The National Security Agency released its first ever transparency report. “The government has strengthened privacy safeguards by, among other things, ending the collection of telephone metadata in bulk, and having telecommunications providers, pursuant to court orders, hold and query the data,” said the report, which was compiled by the NSA’s Civil Liberties and Privacy Office (CLPO).
United States: The Vermont state auditor writes critically about the methodology of a recent study of state transparency conducted by the Center for Pubic Integrity.
United States: The television show Full Measure examines the FOIA.
United States: Tampa Bay Times columnist John Romano writes about the assessment of legal fees to prevailing FOI plaintiffs.
United States: Rachel Alexander of The Spokesman-Review writes about a FOI request for all Spokane, Wash., police camera videos.
United States: “U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham called Wednesday for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release records of a 75-year-old dam that blew out last fall on Fort Jackson as a major storm socked the Columbia area,” writes Sammy Fretwell in The State newspaper. “The Corps has refused to release the records, arguing that terrorists or criminals could use the information against the public.”
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